Sunday, August 18, 2013

The
Mounties are now investigating Senator Pamela Wallin’s “questionable” travel
expense claims amounting to more than $140,000.

Wallin, a former TV broadcaster named to the Senate in 2009 by Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, said it was a “fundamentally flawed and unfair” audit of
her claims.

A
former Canadian consul general to New York, Wallin has been told to pay back tens
of thousands of dollars plus interest from among $321,000 in expenses under
review.

The
audit, which cost taxpayers $126,998, flagged $121,348 in inappropriate
expenses and called for further review of nearly $21,000 in additional claims.

“I
never intended to seek, nor sought, reimbursement for travel expenses in any
situation where I did not believe such a claim was proper," she said.

“Where I made mistakes, I have already paid money back (amounting to
$38,000),” said Wallin, a former Conservative senator who is now an
Independent.

Former
TV news broadcaster, Senator Mike Duffy, who also left the Conservative caucus
and became an Independent, has repaid $90,000 in disallowed claims through a
“loan” from former Harper chief of staff Nigel Wright.

The Mounties are also looking at Duffy’s claims while audits showed
improper housing claims by Senators Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

Monday, August 12, 2013

New Brunswick authorities say a pet store owner was illegally keeping a
15-foot-long African rock python that killed two children.

The snake managed to squeeze out of its enclosure and smother Connor
Barthe, 6, and his brother Noah, 4, who were sleeping in an apartment in
Campbellton.

The 100-pound snake escaped from its glass tank and made its way into
the living room where the boys were during a sleepover with the store owner’s
son.

They were in the apartment above Reptile Ocean, an exotic pet store,
owned by the friend’s father, Jean-Claude Savoie.

Police said he had taken the boys to farm before the sleepover and it is
suspected the snake was attracted by animal scents on their clothing.

The snake has been euthanized and other animals, including four large
alligators, six crocodiles, tortoises, turtles and snakes, were seized and sent
to Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton and the Indian River Reptile Zoo near
Peterborough.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

TransCanada Corp. plans to ship western Canadian oil to east coast
markets in Canada and the United States through a proposed new pipeline.

The company announced the $12-billion project as environmental protests
and U.S. political delays continue to stall its proposed Keystone XL pipeline
to carry crude to Texas from Alberta.

The
Calgary-based company said the Energy East pipeline would deliver up to 1.1-million
barrels of crude oil a day to Quebec by late 2017 and to New Brunswick a year
later.

Plans call for converting a portion of TransCanada's underused natural
gas main line to ship the oil to near the Quebec-Vermont border from Alberta.

There would be new pipe built to Saint John, New Brunswick to feed
Irving Oil's to-be-expanded refinery and shipped overseas to energy-hungry
markets such as India.

It
would also allow shipments to refineries along the U.S. eastern seaboard, an
800,000-barrel-a-day market, as well as to Europe.

TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling called it “historic” for the
company and Canada, comparing it to construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, Trans-Canada Highway and the company's cross-country natural gas mainline.

The project will free eastern Canadian refineries from expensive oil
imports from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Libya.

Environmentalists say they plan to challenge the proposal that requires
Canadian government regulatory approval.